The government has launched a project aiming to promote the use of non-cash payment in Vietnam and restrict the share of cash in the total money supply to below 11 percent by 2015.

Under the project, approved December 27, the government aims to facilitate the development of banking services so that 35-40 percent of the population will have bank accounts by 2015. The goal is to create a habit of using non-cash payment options among the public, the government said.

The government projects that the country will have around 250,000 point of sale terminals to process around 200 million card payment transactions by 2015.

Banks had issued 34 million cards as of June 2011 in the country of 87 million people, according to data compiled by Reuters in December.